He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.
—Thomas Paine (1737–1809) American Nationalist, Author, Pamphleteer, Radical, Inventor
Competition is easier to accept if you realize it is not an act of oppression or abrasion – I’ve worked with my best friends in direct competition
—Diane Sawyer (b.1945) American Journalist, TV Personality
Oppression that is clearly inexorable and invincible does not give rise to revolt but to submission.
—Simone Weil (1909–1943) French Philosopher, Political Activist
Fear of serious injury alone cannot justify oppression of free speech and assembly. Men feared witches and burnt women. It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears.
—Louis Brandeis (1856–1941) American Jurist
My dear fellow citizens: For forty years you have heard from my predecessors on this day different variations of the same theme: how our country flourished, how many millions of tons of steel we produced, how happy we all were, how we trusted our government, and what bright perspectives were unfolding in front of us. I assume you did not propose me for this office so that I, too, would lie to you. . . We live in a contaminated moral environment. We have fallen morally ill because we became used to saying one thing and thinking another. We have learned not to believe in anything, to ignore each other, to care only about ourselves. Notions such as love, friendship, compassion, humility, or forgiveness have lost their depth and dimensions. . . The previous regime . . . reduced man to a means of production and nature to a tool of production. Thus it attacked both their very essence and their mutual relationship. It reduced gifted and autonomous people to nuts and bolts in some monstrously huge, noisy, and stinking machine.
—Vaclav Havel (1936–2011) Czech Dramatist, Statesman
You can’t hold a man down without staying down with him.
—Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) African-American Educationist
There can be no really pervasive system of oppression, such as that in the United States, without the consent of the oppressed
—Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy (1890–1995) American Philanthropist, Socialite
You know, it’s not the world that was my oppressor, because what the world does to you, if the world does it to you long enough and effectively enough, you begin to do to yourself.
—James Baldwin (1924–87) American Novelist, Social Critic
If a man wishes to rid himself of a feeling of unbearable oppression, he may have to take hashish.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
You may try but you can never imagine what it is to have a man’s form of genius in you, and to suffer the slavery of being a girl.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
Oppression makes wise men mad; but the distemper is still the madness of the wise, which is better than the sobriety of fools.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
The worst government is the most moral. One composed of cynics is often very tolerant and humane. But when fanatics are on top there is no limit to oppression.
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
I see the eight of us with our ‘Secret Annexe’ as if we were a little piece of blue heaven, surrounded by heavy black rain clouds. The round, clearly defined spot where we stand is still safe, but the clouds gather more closely about us and the circle which separates us from the approaching danger closes more and more tightly. Now we are so surrounded by danger and darkness that we bump against each other, as we search desperately for a means of escape. We all look down below, where people are fighting each other, we look above, where it is quiet and beautiful, and meanwhile we are cut off by the great dark mass, which will not let us go upwards, but which stands before us as an impenetrable wall; it tries to crush us, but cannot do so yet. I can only cry and implore: ‘Oh, if only the black circle could recede and open the way for us!’
—Anne Frank (1929–45) Holocaust Victim
People need hard times and oppression to develop psychic muscles.
—Frank Herbert (1920–86) American Science Fiction Writer
An oppressive government is more to be feared than a tiger.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.
—Frederick Douglass (1817–95) American Abolitionist, Author, Editor, Diplomat, Political leader
An extreme rigor is sure to arm everything against it.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
There is no happiness for him who oppresses and persecutes; there can be no repose for him. For the sighs of the unfortunate cry for vengeance to heaven.
—Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746–1827) Swiss Educator
Nature in darkness groans and men are bound to sullen contemplation in the night: restless they turn on beds of sorrow; in their inmost brain feeling the crushing wheels, they rise, they write the bitter words of stern philosophy and knead the bread of knowledge with tears and groans.
—William Blake (1757–1827) English Poet, Painter, Printmaker
Resistance to oppression is second nature.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
When there is oppression, the only self-respecting thing is to rise and say this shall cease today, because my right is justice. If you are stronger, you have to help the weaker boy or girl both in play and in the work.
—Sarojini Naidu (1879–1949) Indian Feminist, Poet, Political Leader
Some men look at things the way they are and ask why? I dream of things that are not and ask why not?
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
The camomile, the more it is trodden on, the faster it grows.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
They have given us into the hand of new unhappy lords. Lords without anger and honor, who dare not carry their swords. They fight by shuffling papers; they have bright dead alien eyes; They look at our labor and laughter as a tired man looks at flies.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
Even today a crude sort of persecution is all that is required to create an honorable name for any sect, no matter how indifferent in itself.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
Human beings are so made that the ones who do the crushing feel nothing; it is the person crushed who feels what is happening. Unless one has placed oneself on the side of the oppressed, to feel with them, one cannot understand.
—Simone Weil (1909–1943) French Philosopher, Political Activist
The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
Fishes live in the sea, as men do a-land; the great ones eat up the little ones.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Trust not in oppression, and become not vain in robbery: if riches increase, set not your heart upon them.
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
He who allows oppression shares the crime.
—Desiderius Erasmus (c.1469–1536) Dutch Humanist, Scholar
We must remember that any oppression, any injustice, any hatred, is a wedge designed to attack our civilization.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) American Head of State, Lawyer
No other offense has ever been visited with such severe penalties as seeking to help the oppressed.
—Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) American Civil Liberties Lawyer
If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.
—Desmond Tutu (b.1931) South African Clergyman
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.
—James Madison (1751–1836) American Founding Father, Statesman, President
Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one’s own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
Oppression is more easily borne than insult.
—Junius Unidentified English Writer
True enough, the country is calm. Calm as a morgue or a grave, would you not say?
—Vaclav Havel (1936–2011) Czech Dramatist, Statesman
If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.
—George Orwell (1903–50) English Novelist, Journalist
You cannot raise the standard against oppression, or leap into the breach to relieve injustice, and still keep an open mind to every disconcerting fact, or an open ear to the cold voice of doubt.
—Learned Hand (1872–1961) American Judge, Judicial Philosopher
Ours is the century of enforced travel… of disappearances. The century of people helplessly seeing others, who were close to them, disappear over the horizon.
—John Berger (1926–2017) English Art Critic, Novelist
The oppression of any people for opinion’s sake has rarely had any other effect than to fix those opinions deeper, and render them more important.
—Hosea Ballou (1771–1852) American Theologian
Power in defense of freedom is greater than power in behalf of tyranny and oppression.
—Malcolm X (1925–65) American Civil Rights Leader
All oppression creates a state of war; this is no exception.
—Simone de Beauvoir (1908–86) French Philosopher, Writer, Feminist
But there is only one thing which gathers people into seditious commotion, and that is oppression
—John Locke (1632–1704) English Philosopher, Physician
No oppression is so heavy or lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know, the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives. Mighty little force is needed to control a man whose mind has been hoodwinked; contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, – not anything – you can’t conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him.
—Robert A. Heinlein (1907–88) American Science Fiction Writer
Do not be misled by the fact that you are at liberty and relatively free; that for the moment you are not under lock and key: you have simply been granted a reprieve.
—Ryszard Kapuscinski (1932–2007) Polish Journalist
Among those who dislike oppression are many who like to oppress.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France